Tea Party supporters gather on the steps of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis last weekend. (AP Photo/Whitney Curtis)

(Newser)
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Peggy Noonan isn't quite sure whether the Tea Party movement will ultimately help or hurt the country, but this much is clear: "We are seeing something big," she writes at the Wall Street Journal. (The column is headlined "Why It's Time for the Tea Party.") This is close to being a defacto third party, "not a wing of the GOP but a critique of it," and it's a good bet that it will have lasting impact on our politics.

It's "homegrown, broad-based and independent"—and also fraught with danger. "A movement like this can help a nation by acting as a corrective, or it can descend into a corrosive populism that celebrates unknowingness as authenticity, that confuses showiness with seriousness and vulgarity with true conviction. Parts could become swept by a desire just to tear down, to destroy." She hopes that "members know how fragile are the institutions that help keep the country together." (More Tea Party news here.)

Simple. The American people have seen the face of Liberalism over the previous two years. They don't like what they see. Your lefitst leaders are being banished by the American people. Enjoy your time in the wilderness.

Snowleopard

Sep 17, 2010 9:19 PM CDT

I predict that the Tea Party will loose much of its support once the country sees its agenda in action. Considering that the economy is still on life support (aid to the states, unemployment insurance, etc), the tea party attack on government will ultimately lead to another deep crash. Only then will the independents realize that these people are insane. To bad that america will have collapsed as a consequence.